Blacksite

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Blacksite
Active since 2018-12-09
Blacksite.png
Following the Danger Zone update, a secret was found within the Blacksite.
Type Investigation
Creator Valve
Discovered 2018-12-09

Main Page > List of Investigations > Blacksite


The Broadcast

On December 9, 2018, Reddit user u/vioeugen found a strange broadcast inside Room 3 of the Tourist building on the new Blacksite map. The broadcast was as follows:

[Theme 1 plays 4 times]
papa 
golf 
papa 
whiskey 
*small beep*
5 
0 
sierra 
mike 
sierra 
7 
*small beep*
5 
7 
[Theme 1 plays 3 times]
eating 
hydrolic 
keyboard 
atlantic 
shadow 
liberty 
transit 
orlando 
chairlift 
maritime 
buzzard 
document 
stopwatch 
suspicious 
guidance
politeness 
*fairly long break*    
alone 
molecule 
cobra 
positive
cranky 
unify 
unearth
corrosion 
tunnel 
cumbersome 
mohawk 
repellant 
bison 
voyager 
puppy 
finicky 
afflict 
outfielder 
spheroid 
vagabond 
sawdust 
atlantic 
mural
penetrate 
berzerk 
Medusa
ragtime 
guitarist 
indulge 
consulting 
burbank 
distortion 
repay 
coherence
[Theme 1 plays 4 times, but sped up]

The beginning of this string is in the NATO phonetic alphabet, and reads PGPW50 SMS757. The PGP refers to the PGP Word List, a system similar to the NATO phonetic alphabet for conveying more complex data. The W50 indicates that there are 50 PGP words. When all the words are translated into PGP format they read as such:

54 74 7A 0E
BA 87 E7 A0
30 88 2E 4F
D7 DB 70 B4
*break*
0B 94 3C B5
41 ED F0 3A
ED 3E 83 C2
20 F7 9B 5E
06 A1 CB F2
B2 0E 84 AC
1E 8B A0 69
75 38 2C 4E
A7 2E

This led to the SMS757 string's use. SMS7 indicates that the data is encoded in GSM 7-bit, while the 57 references the number of characters. When decoded, the string read as such:

This was a triumph. I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.

This is a reference to the song "Still Alive" from the Valve game Portal, leading to speculation that this may tie into a third Portal release.

The Experiment Decals

These experiment_decals_0X textures are found in Blacksite's texture folder, hr_massive, (hr = hi-resolution, massive = the internal name for Blacksite).

Signage: Images and Messages

Throughout the map there is various imagery, some of it quite dark or edgy. Some of it has equivalent weapon skins.

The Info Kiosk: East End Marina

On Blacksite there is an info kiosk model, however in-game it is empty. Contained within Blacksite's texture folder, there is a texture: survival_info_kiosk_color. The text in it is blacked out, but brightening the image allows most of it to be revealed.

The image links to the website eastendmarina.com among other things mentioned.

Likely Gamejack: eastendmarina.com

As of 14:44 PST 2018-12-09 the site is black with an embedded audio file: 2.wav

However, it's unlikely that this is an official part of the ARG because the site was registered on 2018-12-09, technically a couple days after the trailhead.